Plug-in hybrids help drive demand for electric car charging stations that are critical to electric car success, Dikeman writes, and electric cars drive the cost down on the batteries that brings the plug-in costs into line. Unlike with the Prius over a decade ago, it’s not a single car changing the world, it’s the combination that’s working well for us.

If urbanization trends continue, American cities have the potential to become far more sustainable, Chahar writes, rather than continuing the 20th century trend of sprawling further and further away from the city with an ever-increasing carbon footprint.

Boeing 787 battery fires are causing Boeing and its customers major headaches, Stuebi writes, and has implications for the future of clean energy. The Boeing 787 design uses lithium-ion batteries in order to maximize fuel efficiency.

Whether Americans in the wake of Sandy will want to undertake the effort to change, in order to not only heal themselves but inoculate themselves against challenges posed by future storms like Sandy, is a major question, Stuebi writes.